Tube Preamp, T-Saturator, Razorgate: Free Plugins of the Week
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Tube Preamp is a free preamp emulation that lets you experiment with the individual components of the circuit! This week’s collection of free plugins also includes a fantastic saturator by Techivation and a razor-sharp noise gate by Psycho Circuitry.
DDMF Tube Preamp: Preamp Emulation with Adjustable Values
How about a tube preamp emulation that also teaches you a thing or two about how the circuit works? Then you should download Tube Preamp for free from the DDMF website. The plugin was originally developed by Philipp Bulling as a thesis work. When he moved on to other things, DDMF took over the code, with plans to further improve it in the future.
The unique – albeit a bit nerdy – thing about this preamp emulation is that it shows you the individual electronic components of the circuit. Moreover, you can even edit their respective values. If you’d like to find out how a tube preamp works and how its components interact with each other, this is the plugin for you. The website has a lot of interesting background information on the circuit. A great way to learn about electronics while making music!
That said, you can of course also simply crank up the Drive and Output Gain knobs and jam away.
DDMF Tube Preamp is available for macOS and Windows in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX formats.
Techivation T-Saturator: Level-independent Saturation
T-Saturator by Techivation is an extremely versatile free saturation plugin. Its four dynamic saturation modes (Tube, Tape, Clip, Fold) can be fine-tuned with the Crunch knob for a wide variety of sounds. Moreover, the saturation is applied independently of the input level. This means that quiet and louder sections of your audio receive the same amount of saturation and harmonics, giving you precise control over the sound.
Speaking of precise control: T-Saturator also offers a Smash knob that lets you focus the saturation on the attack portions of the signal. Furthermore, there’s a Frequency Range slider for limiting the effect to specific frequencies. This makes it easy to apply just the right amount of saturation to exactly the portion of the signal that needs it.
With additional features such as M/S processing, auto gain, up to 8X oversampling, and a resizable GUI, T-Saturator is one of the most versatile free saturators I’ve come across in a long time.
T-Saturator is available for macOS and Windows in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX formats.
Psycho Circuitry Razorgate: Razor-sharp Gate
Psycho Circuitry has been on a roll lately, releasing new plugins almost on a weekly basis. Like the developer’s other plugins, Razorgate is available as a free version and as a paid “plus” version with additional features.
As the name suggests, Razorgate is a gate plugin that slices away unwanted audio. In addition to Threshold, Range, and envelope controls (open/close/hold), it offers a Character knob that affects the envelope shape. There’s also a hysteresis control. The Delta button allows you to hear what’s being removed.
The paid version (currently available for $19) adds a VCA Color knob, a sidechain filter, an external sidechain option, and a Dual Mono mode.
Razorgate is available for macOS and Windows in VST3 and AU formats.
Looking for more free plugins like Tube Preamp, T-Saturator, and Razorgate? Check out our archive!
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